something I can relate to

This article, which reviews a new book by Barbara Ehrenreich titled Bright-sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking has Undermined America, contains a passage that is very meaningful to me:

All the Oprah-ready gurus you would expect to populate this polemic show up to share some advice—here’s Joel Osteen warning us never to “verbalize a negative emotion,” there’s Tony Robbins exhorting us to “Get motivated!” In turning the United States into a 24-hour pep rally, charges Ehrenreich, these professional cheerleaders have all but drowned out downers like “realism” and “rationality.” Their followers are trained to dismiss bad news rather than assimilate or reflect upon its importance.

I believe there is a such thing as a "good attitude," but as I contended earlier, it's not an attitude divorced from reality.


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